Sprint and T-Mobile CEOs Are in Washington to Sell Their Merger. Here’s What They’ll Confront.

Here’s what three government agencies will weigh as they consider the T-Mobile/Sprint merger.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (Cfius), an intra-agency panel run from the Treasury Department that reviews mergers and can block them on national security grounds, will ask if the deal is in the national interest of the US.

The Federal Communications Commission will examine if the deal is in the public interest. In 2014, the FCC and the Department of Justice concluded that effectively reducing the wireless market to three major carriers from four would not be good for consumers. Sprint and T-Mobile are now betting that current FCC Chairman Ajit Pai feels differently.

The Justice Department's Antitrust Division will also review the deal. T-Mobile and Sprint’s deal would unite two direct competitors, a type of deal that regulators have traditionally been harder on.